Allan's Guest House Stirling

We are visiting the UK and Norway at the end of May and first part of June in 2010. I have never been to Europe and am very excited about it.

Our daughter has been attending Kingston University this past year so we are going to see her, travel and pack her up to come home. We have family in Stavanger so we don't need hotels and ...

FINALLY, a real trip!

So randomly decided on Friday to accompany my friends on their Edinburgh day trip. Not for anything touristy, just to check out the place. Heard it was gorgeous, so why not?

After crawling out of bed at 5.30am, we got to the bus terminal for 7 and hopped onto the Megabus down to Edinburgh. Nice, quiet ride, nice little nap.. until they tell us that we have to change in Dundee. Ugh.

Out ...

... city and the first time that we have felt relay cold!

Porridge (with salt not sugar) for breakky.

Sunday morning was the "Barras". Markets selling all sorts of goods, trash, treasure and the like. "Come on folks, it's all cheap because it's all stolen"

Really enjoyable weekend and great to stay with a family and see what they say is "The Heart of Scottland"

Fun trip to Murrayfield for Scotland v Fiji.....lots of happy Scottish faces after the win, boys in fancydress, stag parties galore, chuc-chucs ferrying folks home in the rain, great cocktails in an Italian Jazz bar and running to catch last train back home on a busy busy Saturday night train heading South.

Today, I was planning to go to the youth hostel at the castle, but the Land Rover had other plans!!!

Oh dear, game over! I popped out to start the Land Rover this morning at around 9am and the engine was smoking like a trooper and sounding a lot worse than it normally does. I called the AA at around 10:00 and they turned up at at around 10:45 from a local garage. He told me that the engine is fairly terminal (piston problem ...

... del navigatore, e cosė gli devo dire io dove andare!!

A parte questi piccoli casini, oggi siamo andati a visitare il castello di Stirling, adagiato su una splendida collina proprio sull'omonima cittadina.
Durante la salita si ammirano diverse costruzioni d'epoca e molte di queste sono state trasformate in hotel e piccoli ristoranti.

Appena arrivati nello spiazzale del castello, si ha un colpo d'occhio notevole. Il castello č imponente e ...

... br>book (or 2) for reading on the plane...
Rough Guide to West Africa
Le Guide du routard: Afrique de l'Ouest !!! (for the purposes of maximising my potential to meet French-speaking travellers (..!) by staying in the same places as them, clearly..)
address book so I can write to all you lovely people back home
... envelopes to send you letters in case I can't find postcards from the
highly popular tourist destination that is Burkina Faso ...

... one was Celtic symbolisms surrounding trees, while another was evoking this special chest at the Stirling Museum. It was a really relaxing day out and then we got to see some countryside on the way there and back which was lovely. Overall Stirling was a really cute city, and I throughly enjoyed the day. For dinner Emily and I went out for Indian food to assauge the grief over her boy still being in the U.S. Overall it was a good day :)

... into a knitter's shop across the street for directions. The elderly shop keeper fulfilled every expectation of Scottish charm I held, for her kindness was matched only by the soothing tone in which she delivered her patient instructions. After being swooned into buying a typically Scottish scarf, I led the way through the town and up the hill to the Stirling Castle. Unfortunately our chat with the grandmotherly shop keeper delayed us past the last entry into the ...

... Stewarts to dinner in 1696 then killed them, probably before feeding them so as to not waste any food. The drive from Glencoe to Crianlanich was amazing apart from the rain, which one expects in this area close to Ben Nevis. The highlands we passed were completely barren of any real vegetation, so there is absolutely no way you could have sneaked up to someone's castle and surprised your enemies, which make the dinner invitation strategy a plausible alternative.